A Navy veteran works on an assignment at the FSCJ Kent Campus library.

Despite confusion over the causes of a GI Bill debt levied against Florida State College at Jacksonville, the institution is already telling students the debt is theirs — and that they could be delayed up to a year in finishing their degrees.

FSCJ recently started notifying more than 500 veterans they needed to repay debts from the Department of Veterans Affairs, stemming from Post-9 /11 GI Bill benefits, after the government started docking $330,000 from the college’s federal funding to cover the debts. The college has been instructing its veterans to get in touch with the VA themselves and learn more about the cause of the debt, then report back with that information.

Though the college was notified it was enrolled in the Treasury Offset Program, which takes money from federal sources to cover the VA debt, FSCJ says it received nothing but names and amounts with no other explanation of the source of the debt. It has already begun leveling the debts against student accounts, though the college and VA disagree about whose pockets the contested money ended up in.

The college and an advocacy group for college business officers say the debts result from refunds colleges issued if a student’s course load changed after the GI Bill money was paid to the college. But in an email, a VA spokesman disagreed, saying the agency reviewed all debts to make sure the schools — and not the students — were actually responsible before they sent the first notice.

“Any debt resulting from a reduction or withdrawal from school after the first day of the term are assessed against the student,” Terry Jemison, spokesman for Veterans Benefits Administration, said in an email.

FSCJ student Michael Koon said he never received the $800 the college is asking him to pay. And the VA agrees.

Koon 29, is in his final semester to get a bachelor’s degree in information technology management. In the summer of 2010, the Navy veteran said he took and completed 13 credits worth of classes. But according to the VA, his first certification — a step required before the college gets paid the GI Bill tuition money — was for just 10 credits. It was then canceled and reissued for four credits, Koon was told by the VA, so the college received the money for all 14. But only the four-credit certification was still valid with the VA, despite the college receiving 14 credits worth of tuition money.

“The VA said they overpaid the school,” Koon said. “The debt belongs to the school, not me.”

The problem is widespread among colleges with GI Bill students and seems to be concentrated in those served by the VA’s Atlanta regional office, said Anne Gross, vice president of regulatory affairs at the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

“The VA systems are challenged running this program,” Gross said.

The VA could not provide a nationwide list of colleges or universities with the debt or that were also sent to the Treasury Offset Program.

FSCJ was in the top 10 in the nation for GI Bill students served, with about 3,000 students using the benefit in the first two years since the Post-9/11 GI Bill went into effect in 2009.

Gross believes the problems colleges are seeing now are connected to that first year when they often got conflicting instructions on how to handle overpayments. Many were told to send the extra money to students who dropped a class, as FSCJ was instructed to do and later told to stop doing.

Because of the confusion, some affected colleges have waited to take any action against student accounts.

Miami Dade College reports it has about $56,000 in debt, but it is not seeking repayment yet.

“There is more reconciliation work and research needed,” spokesman Juan Mendieta said.

Hillsborough Community College, where the federal government is withholding about $10,000, also is waiting to learn more, said spokeswoman Ashley Carl.

But once that college learns more, Carl said, its administration may consider seeking repayment from the veterans because state law requires it — assuming it can determine the students owe the money in question.

Koon said he never got any money from FSCJ except his financial aid. He has three children and a fiancee to support, and $800 is not inconsequential. He believes the college is “hiding” behind a state law to avoid covering the debt, and an outstanding debt could keep him from getting his degree in May.

“I’m pretty sure nobody is going to say anything to you about violating a state law when you’re paying for veterans,” Koon said.

Florida’s education code says state colleges and other institutions “shall exert every effort to collect all delinquent accounts,” including through the use of a collection agency, payroll deductions or withholding transcripts or diplomas. It also says the college could “charge off or settle” debts that cannot be collected.

Last year, FSCJ asked students to repay 1,700 Pell Grants worth $4.2 million after the college errantly approved student’s appeals for the federal aid, citing the law.

Interim FSCJ President Will Holcombe said the same law applies with the veterans, even though collecting this debt is not something he wants to do.

But Peter Lake, director of Stetson University’s Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy, said that law likely was written with students who bounce checks in mind.

“These are not classic delinquent accounts. These are students who likely in good faith took this money,” Lake said.

At least one other Florida college has chosen to pocket the costs of the VA fines, although its debt was much lower than FSCJ’s.

At Seminole State College, where the VA debt was about $18,000, spokesman Jay Davis said the college covered the cost because it was small. “There was some consideration also to the amount of time and the cost of collecting that amount, plus the stress on a student veteran,” Davis said.

FSCJ vice president of administrative affairs Steve Bowers said he’s not sure if the college was notified before the federal government said it would withhold funding, and he left fighting against the offsets to advocacy groups the college belongs to, such as the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Bowers said he intends to update the Board of Trustees at its monthly meeting next week about plans to make veterans pay the debt. They will not be allowed to register for classes again until they’ve either paid the full amount or made 12 payments against it, Bowers said.

Jason Thigpen, founder and president of Student Veterans Advocacy Group, said the government and college are side-stepping their responsibilities.

“Based on what we know is happening to many student veterans today, they’re the ones who are being vilified and held responsible, while there’s no accountability or responsibility by the VA or college,” Thigpen said in an email. “I’m not a genius but that just doesn’t make sense, nor is it right.”